Bringing this popular topic back to the top of the All Things Glen forum! 'Tis the season!

I can't recall any new holiday albums/songs released in 2017.
However, this official music video was released during the holiday season last year by Glen's management team:

This endearing video clip was recently released with Ashley Campbell recalling memories from Christmases past:

"Breautube on youtube" recently uploaded these Christmas 1994 gems to his channel for fans to enjoy:

Looking for a Christmas album to add to your holiday music collection this year? Scroll down through three pages of Glen Campbell Forums' exclusive feature "Holiday Albums and Song Releases" presented by "Dee-Jay" at WGCF! Glen has left us with an astounding legacy of the most beautiful Christmas music beginning with the fan favorite studio album from 1968: 'That Christmas Feeling'.

Photo: Glen Campbell "Home for the Holidays" Album Cover (CD) - a reissue of the 1993 album by the same nameCLICK ON PHOTO TO SEE FULL VIEW

Hi! This is Dee, your Deejay from WGCF presenting rockin’ for your stockin’ info about Glen Campbell’s holiday studio albums, compilation albums, and other artists’ albums on which he rocks! We are going to look at long-time favorite holiday albums as well as lesser known albums and one-offs that offer Glen Campbell song RARITIES!

Glen’s holiday albums range from traditional to contemporary, thus reflecting his great performance versatility. As sung by Glen, each song is a gem and if Santa Claus had an mp3 player (and he probably does!), he would be listening to these songs all day long!

Readers, it took me years to collect these holiday albums, and I made many mistakes—finding album after album with different or similar cover art but with the same songs/recordings. In particular, Glen’s holiday CDs have been reissued and repackaged over and over, sometimes under the same names as the originals, sometimes under different names.

I learned about rare recordings from other Glen Campbell fans--recordings never released as Glen Campbell singles or as Glen Campbell album tracks. A perfect example of such a rarity is Glen’s recording of “Silent Night” that appears on a limited release CD titled “Merry Arizona” (described below).

Glen’s discography on Wikipedia was (and continues to be) a huge help for me, too. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Campbell_discography" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Kudos to the dedicated researchers who created, maintain, and update this AMAZING discography!

Not listed under this topic are the many, many holiday albums with other artists that include Glen Campbell songs that originally appeared on his own albums. An example of this type of album is: “Christmas With Glen Campbell & Sonny James” (LP, cassette). Glen and Sonny did not duet together on this album. Standard Glen songs are on one side of the cassette; Sonny’s songs are on the other side.

In this topic’s descriptions of albums/recordings, I added “Dee-Notable” comments--info that I thought you might like to know if you don’t already have this music in your collection.

One final note, my list of holiday albums may or may not be complete. If any readers are aware of other holiday songs by Glen Campbell, please PM me with this information. We would love to have a complete list here on the Glen Campbell Forums. (Other artists' holiday albums/songs on which Glen played guitar when he was doing session work are not included here--it would be wonderful to post and document this information, too, perhaps under another a new topic. Please let me know if you'd like for me to set up a new topic for this purpose.)

"That Christmas Feeling" is the 11th album (LP) and first Christmas album by Glen Campbell, released in 1968 by Capitol Records and produced by Al De Lory. The album’s cover art is a picture of a smiling Glen wearing a white turtleneck shirt and seated in front of a roaring fireplace. This LP became a holiday classic, but other than the release of this original vinyl album, it was generally unavailable for years – with some exceptions* -- until it was reissued as “Christmas” on an Icon Series CD in 2013, and again on vinyl in 2016. Following are excerpts from the back sleeve notes describing why this album was such a landmark one:

"Glen Campbell and his arranger-conducter-producer Al de Lory have ... chosen two brand-new songs which significantly add to the ever-growing realm of spirit and song and human warmth that is Christmas. And these beautifully new standards of tomorrow -- the innocently touching "Christmas is for Children" and the anticipatingly joyous "It Must Be Getting Close to Christmas" -- were composed by none other than the famed Broadway songwriting team of Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen."

"'That Christmas Feeling' is indeed an inspired combination of the finest of the old and the freshest of the new. And just in case you'd like a complete combination of the two reconcilable worlds, try listening to Sammy Cahn's new lyrics to the traditional and familiar 'There's No Place Like Home'. Yes, here are tomorrow's finest Christmas standards . . . today! Here are yesterday's Christmas standards and traditions . . . today! And it's all Glen Campbell's personal and talented way of saying, 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'."

*Reissues

September 23, 2016: Reissued on vinyl (not 180g). We do not believe it was remastered. A CD was not concurrently issued.

One exception to the availability of "That Christmas Feeling" on CD format was a CD released in 1997 by the Netherlands-based Disky Records label. It was issued with different cover art than the original vinyl album (and has been difficult to find/expensive to buy—Dee). See photo below:

A second exception was a digital version of the original album released in 2010 by Capitol Records Nashville, with the original cover art and two bonus tracks, "The Night Before Christmas" and "Silent Night", taken from a 1969 B.F. Goodrich compilation album titled “The Christmas Sound of Music” (described in a post below).

In 2013, Capitol Records reissued “That Christmas Feeling” as a newly remastered CD under the Capitol Nashville Icon Series, but with a different title, “Christmas” (aka "Icon Christmas"), with new cover art on the front of the CD. The back of the CD has a black and white version of the front cover of the original 1968 LP (“That Christmas Feeling”). Photo below:

Dee-Notables:
It is not known why the original album’s title and its cover art were not used for the ICON Series reissue. We also don’t know why this classic album wasn’t re-mastered and re-released on CD until 45 years after the album’s first release! As described in the liner notes, the songs on this album are today's (2016's!) finest Christmas standards and traditions. I still hear some of these songs on FM radio during the holiday season. Do you, too?
Check out the Wikipedia link below for information about the positions and years (after 1968) this album continued to land on the Billboard charts as a holiday favorite!

"Home For The Holidays" is the 52nd album by Glen Campbell. It was released in 1993 (CD and possibly cassette, too) by New Haven and was recorded at Javelina Recording Studio, Nashville, TN. Glen produced this album of traditional Christmas songs along with Ken Harding and Bergen White.

Dee-Notables:
Vince Gill is a guest vocalist on the "Away In A Manger Medley".
This album was re-released in 1998 and again in 2011 with different cover art. Very confusing!

Track listing

"The Christmas Song"
"Away In A Manger Medley" ("Away In A Manger", "O Little Town of Bethlehem", "The First Noel")
"It Came Upon A Midnight Clear"
"Little Drummer Boy"
"What Child Is This?"
"I'll Be Home for Christmas"
"Hark The Herald Angels Sing Medley" ("O Come All Ye Faithful", "We Three Kings", "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"
"Silent Night"
"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"
"O Holy Night"

"Christmas with Glen Campbell" is the 55th album by Glen Campbell (CD). Released in 1995 by Laserlight, it was produced by T.J. Kuenster and recorded at the Glen Campbell Goodtime Theatre in Branson, Missouri with the Goodtime Band!

This is a contemporary holiday music album, it’s very uptempo, and includes some HOT Glen Campbell guitar solos that could make SNOW MELT!

Dee-Notables:
Glen Campbell plays acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and bagpipes.
Other musicians and backing vocals include T.J. Kuenster, Jeff Dayton, Gary Bruzzese, Ken Skaggs, Russell Skaggs, Noel Kirkland, and Ron Rutowski. All of these marvelously talented artists were part of the Goodtime Band at that time.
Regretably, the super talented background vocalists are not credited. Is Debby Campbell on this album?

“A Glen Campbell Christmas” is the 56th album (CD only) by Glen Campbell and was released in 1998 on the TNN Classic Sessions label. It is comprised of traditional Christmas songs only. This was a hugely successful holiday album for Glen: it won a Gospel Music Association Dove Award (1999) for Country Album of the Year and also received a Grammy nomination for Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album.

Dee-Notables:
The CD was released in conjunction with a TNN (U.S. cable television) holiday program that aired in the U.S. in December 1998. It was filmed in Missouri’s Ozarks and also featured special guests Collin Raye and the Kinleys. (Source: http://www.cmt.com/news/1472730/glen-ca ... ove-award/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

In 1999 the album was repackaged and released on the Unison/TNN label:

"The Night Before Christmas" is a 1984 compilation album released only on cassette by Capitol Records. This cassette is especially notable for including Glen's wonderful, previously unreleased rendition of "White Christmas" for the first time. Recorded on July 16, 1968, this version with Glen's sweet voice accompanied by a small jazz combo of piano, bass, guitar and drums is something magical.

Side Two
"I’ll Be Home For Christmas"
"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"
"The Night Before Christmas"
"There’s No Place Like Home"

Dee-Notables:
I believe these recordings were very carefully selected for this album. Side One’s “The Christmas Song” conjures up the colors and moods of the holidays: chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost, the season bright, and eyes all aglow. “Blue Christmas” and “White Christmas” are back to back. Pretty paper, pretty ribbons. The images of light in “Silent Night”.

Side Two’s songs all relate to home, family and friendships.

The photo on the front of this cassette cover is very similar to the photo on “Christmas”, the 2013 Icon Series album (the reissue of the 1968 “That Christmas Feeling” album). In fact, it must have been taken during the same photo shoot; Glen is dressed in the same coat and shirt; his hair style is the same in both photos. On the Icon album, Glen is looking away from the photographer, perhaps over the photographer’s shoulder. Snowflakes were digitally added to the photo. On this 1984 album, Glen is looking and smiling directly at the photographer. (No snowflakes)

This album was released in 1971, likely as a follow-up to the highly successful 1968 “That Christmas Feeling” album, by Capitol Records in association with Continental Production Company. All selections by Glen Campbell were arranged and conducted by Al De Lory. William Loose arranged and conducted the recordings by the Hollywood Pops Orchestra and the Voices of Christmas.

On the back of this album’s sleeve is a description that reads, in part, as follows:

“It would be difficult to find a more perfect host for any Christmas entertainment than America’s favorite entertainer, Glen Campbell. Glen has been catapulted into the limelight as just about the most popular performer in the nation, and for all the right reasons: genuine charm, wholesome good looks and great talent. Millions of people feel they know him personally, probably because he represents so many of the sincere and appealing qualities most of us admire. It’s easy to know Glen Campbell because, like the great songs and music in this album, he’s as warm and familiar as an old friend.”

Dee-Notable: The front album cover photo of Glen Campbell is the same one that was used on Glen's "A New Place In The Sun" album from 1968!

Track list

Side One
"There's No Place Like Home" (GC)
"The Holly And The Ivy (“Pops”)"
"It Must Be Getting Close To Christmas" (GC)
"The First Noel" (Voices)
"Silent Night" (GC)

Side 2
"Medley: Jingle Bells / Up On The Housetop / Jolly Old St. Nicholas (Pops)"
"I'll Be Home For Christmas" (GC)
"I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" (Voices)
"Adeste Fideles" (Pops)
"The Night Before Christmas" (narrative with music) (GC)